Polish prime minister: A statement of “regret” for what Obama said from a White House spokesman isn’t good enough; Update: Polish president sends letter

posted at 8:23 pm on May 30, 2012 by Allahpundit

The Prime Minister stated that Poland expected America to engage in efforts aimed at eradicating the phrase “Polish death camps” once and for all. Donald Tusk added that it might “paradoxically be a good occasion for the American administration, Americans and the President of the United States to support Poland in its efforts to promote historical truth, correct phrases and appropriate assessments of the events which took place in Poland and Europe during the Second World War”…

I am certain that our American friends are capable of a more explicit reaction than issuing a correction and the spokesperson of the White House expressing regret, and that maybe they will once and for all eliminate such errors – said the head of the Polish government.

Not sure what he wants the U.S. to do to help “eradicate” the phrase “Polish death camps.” Banning it would be unconstitutional, of course; some sort of educational campaign would be fine, except that I think pretty much everyone already understands that the “Polish death camps” were actually German death camps. That’s why Obama’s taking such a beating for it today, even from his own side. Lefty Michael Tomasky, a reliable Obama defender, calls it the worst thing he’s ever said:

This probably won’t matter much politically–I’m not sure how many Polish-Americans are Obama voters (although maybe in Chicago there’s a fair number, just on the basis of going for the hometown kid; but of course they all live in a state he’s carrying by 20 points anyhow). But it’s important and it’s embarrassing. Yes–it’s the first time he’s ever embarrassed me as president. He came kinda-sorta close when he called the Cambridge police “stupid,” but that was more of a political thing, not a sin against history. This was just shameful; a shameful thing for a president to say. If you don’t know why, read Frum’s essay, linked to above.

If anyone in the big O’s orbit reads these scribblings, I would beseech you people to encouarge the boss to correct this record. To take a moment to say at an upcoming event, “You know, I said something really terribly wrong last week, and I want to correct it.” And go on to explain why it’s important that he do so. That would actually play very well politically–for people to see a politician admit to an error, in public like that! But that is not why I propose it. I propose it because it’s right.

Here’s the David Frum post to which he refers, explaining why this is much worse than the usual “57 states” Obama brain fart. Quote: “The medal to Karski was to be part of the process of laying painful memories to rest. It was intended too to strengthen the US-Polish relations that the Obama administration has frayed in pursuit of its ‘reset’ with Russia. Instead, this administration bungled everything: past, present, and future.”

I said last night that, at the least, Tusk and foreign minister Radek Sikorski could expect groveling phone calls from Obama. But I was wrong: To my amazement, Jay Carney told the White House press corps this afternoon that he’s not aware of any plans by Obama to phone either. Can that possibly be true? Calling them “Polish death camps” is profoundly stupid but can be explained away as an accidental lapse in thought. Refusing to call and apologize for the error is much more of a deliberate slight. What’s the hold up, champ?

“I hope we will jointly act to make up for this unfortunate mistake. I believe that every error, every mistake can be corrected if it is given adequate consideration,” Komorowski said in remarks posted on his official website.

Komorowski stopped well short of explicitly demanding an apology from Obama, who used the phrase Tuesday as he honored World War II Polish resistance hero Jan Karski with a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian American honor. Poland’s foreign minister had demanded a full apology late Tuesday. But Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk made no reference to an apology on Wednesday even as he blasted Obama’s remark.

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Yes, it is. I sent a note indicating that I can’t apologize for the JEF, but I will apologize for myself, as an American. That a$$hole spoke for me as a nation, so yah, I own that sh!tball comment too.

Yes, it is. I sent a note indicating that I can’t apologize for the JEF, but I will apologize for myself, as an American. That a$$hole spoke for me as a nation, so yah, I own that sh!tball comment too.

BillH on May 31, 2012 at 12:47 AM

I think pretty much everyone already understands that the “Polish death camps” were actually German death camps.

You can calm down spanky. There were many death camps in Poland so the description wasn’t completely inaccurate. Yes, it’s more correct to call those camps Nazi death camps in Poland.

You can calm down spanky. There were many death camps in Poland so the description wasn’t completely inaccurate. Yes, it’s more correct to call those camps Nazi death camps in Poland.

bayam on May 31, 2012 at 1:04 AM

Whoa! One of our left leaning trolls wades in with a useless comment! Didn’t see that coming. Say, Bayam, can you name some of the other countries where the Germans opened for business? Also, is it correct to assume, using your logic, of course, that where these camps were set up, the “host” country shared in the glory? C’mon, Bayam, show me some love, you completely worthless skidmark! I feel the need for some rewritten history, Wikipedia-style.

i think he meant to do it. insulting poland to gig them for being upset w/ him over pulling the missile shield. and it also gives him cred w/ putin. it another way of giving the finger which is how he deals w/ those who iritate him.

I’m of Polish lineage, but never gave it SO much weight as to really tick me off whenever a (especially democrat) presidents take a crap on Poland. It’s never been this bad though as it is with zerobama.

As an 11 year old I went with my mother on a religious tour of Europe.(didn’t care about the religious part, the history and scenery is why I wanted to go) We toured auschwitz and another camp . It leaves an indelible mark on the mind and soul. I saw rooms full of purses, hair, skin made into various things like lampshades by the horrific bastard nazis. Then I saw the barracks, the torture rooms, the showers, and then the ovens.

To Hitler and his sadistic pals it didn’t matter if you were Polish or Jewish. To him they were the same people…dirty people. Sub-humans. Inferior. Dogs to be put down. Animals to be worked to death or outright gassed and burned.

This is exactly the behavior obama and his freakish scumbag associations and supporters advocate (black panthers, seiu, soros, alec baldwin, sean penn, etc). This is the behavior islamists support, and obama supports the islamists. This is our president. An anti-freedom-of-anything, responsible-for-nothing socialist progressive pig.

Thanks a whole lot everyone that didn’t bother to vet their dumbocrat candidate in 2008 and voted for him for whatever reason. If you did vet obama, knew what he was about and voted for him because you agree….well, rot in the deepest pits of your worst imaginable hell.

the whitewashing of that period is ironic, it’s as if they are trying to rewrite history, yes it wasn’t their fault, but many people helped the nazis. That being said they are our allies and pro-western so Obama shouldn’t have done it

golembythehudson on May 30, 2012 at 8:34 PM

right, but please don’t forget that the most vicious communists were the Je-ws: in Poland and elsewhere: Hungary, Baltic’s, but especially in CCCP- sovjiet Russia where the Je-wish were the more then red commies, sorry to say. And Poles knew it quite well, that was why the collaboration happened.

He’s too busy thinking up jokes about the special Olympics to apologize to Poland for implicating them in perpetrating war crimes when they were the victims.

This might be obvious to a lot of us but there are a frightening number of ignorant youth coming up who need to have their facts straight. And this is the segment that is most likely to vote for Obama.

The worst part of the “apology” was when Vietor said Obama has been supportive of Poland through word and deed. Yet everybody knows he has not. So that’s an obvious “forget you, Poland, you’re being treated exactly the way we want to treat you.”

please don’t forget that the most vicious communists were the Je-ws: in Poland and elsewhere: Hungary, Baltic’s, but especially in CCCP- sovjiet Russia where the Je-wish were the more then red commies, sorry to say. And Poles knew it quite well, that was why the collaboration happened.

magone on May 31, 2012 at 1:58 AM

The only other places I’ve seen such bullcr@p is Holocaust denial and white supremacy sites.

To Hitler and his sadistic pals it didn’t matter if you were Polish or Jewish. To him they were the same people…dirty people. Sub-humans. Inferior. Dogs to be put down. Animals to be worked to death or outright gassed and burned.

Wolfmoon on May 31, 2012 at 1:33 AM

I think I read that two reasons for the whole gassing “solution” was for the sake of efficiency and that the soldiers were having psychological problems from having to shoot innocent men, women and children to death. Imagine that. My landlord in Germany in the early 70′s was a soldier in WWII. A kind and gentle man. I can’t imagine what such a duty would have done to his soul and psyche.

These maroons have no humility… sorry for saying your people are mass murderers and were taking part in genocide when you were getting bombed to hell and back by the Nazis and then the Commies, and then the West didn’t stand up for you AGAIN after the war.

But, hey, thanks for the first light cavalry you sent us during that little skirmish in 1776! They sure were helpful! And for all the help in Iraq and places like that… now that is all over and we can forget your help and just insinuate that you are all part and parcel of genocide under Nazis and Commies.

I’m a teacher of 8th graxde English. One of the books in the curriculum is Elie Wiesel’s Night.

I make a point to distinguish between “Germans” and “Nazis.” The atrocities committed were instituted by a totalitarian political movement that co-opted Germany.

To call the camps “Polish death camps” is to insinuate that the Poles built and ran these camps instead of the Nazis.

Grammatically, “Polish” is an adjective that describes what kind of camps they were. NOT an adverb describing where the camps were. If the president wanted felt it important to specify the location, he should have said, “Nazi death camps” or even, as suggested above, simply “death camps” with followed by the prepositional phrase “in Poland.”

Seriously, the thing that amazes me is that the jug-eared Kenyan hasn’t apologized correctly and put this matter to rest. We are in day three since the idiot talked about Polish death camps. The Poles are still riled up (with good reason). Why doesn’t Obama man up and take his lumps?

“I’m not sure how many Polish-Americans are Obama voters (although maybe in Chicago there’s a fair number”

Don’t know if it’s still true, but in the 1960′s Chicago was the second largest Polish city in the world. I think only Warsaw had a larger population of Poles. I would say a politician might not want to deliberately insult that many voters.

Heh. Perhaps we’ll get a thoughtful and well considered apology to our friends and allies the Poles when BO finds time in his terribly busy schedule. I think he may be able to re-calibrate his laser like focus on this issues after the dog leg on the 4th hole at Andrews. (Not to be confused with the chili dogs after the turn). This should show how much he cares, since it was from this same course that he held his courageous vigil when volcanic ash scuttled his trip to Poland for the funeral of President Kaczyński and his wife back in 2010. Rather than travel to the Polish embassy to sign the book of condolence, he bravely told his team to clear the course and took 3 friends out to mourn President Kaczyński and declared it a ‘no mulligans’ round in his honor.

I think pretty much everyone already understands that the “Polish death camps” were actually German death camps.

You can calm down spanky. There were many death camps in Poland so the description wasn’t completely inaccurate. Yes, it’s more correct to call those camps Nazi death camps in Poland.

bayam on May 31, 2012 at 1:04 AM

While I agree that it was just a misstatement and not that big of a deal, it’s just further evidence – added to a mountain of evidence – that Obama is just not that bright. For someone touted as “brilliant” and a “constitutional law scholar” he is clearly of average intelligence at best. And I have never understood anyone who claimed he was a great speaker. What has he ever said of any real consequence? What speech will live on after he is gone? What phrase has he uttered that is memorable in a good way?

He can speak well – i.e., he can recite written words in a pleasing way to some people’s ears (not to mine, way too many “uhs” and “ums” plus way to many repeated cliche filler phrases like “let me be clear” and “some people say” and I think his cadence is odd). That does not make him a great orator in any way.

You can calm down spanky. There were many death camps in Poland so the description wasn’t completely inaccurate. Yes, it’s more correct to call those camps Nazi death camps in Poland.

bayam on May 31, 2012 at 1:04 AM

Tell that to the Poles. Maybe they’ll listen to you, Bayam, giving them the lesson on diplomatic sensitivities that they need so they don’t get so upset at our President for this second faux pas against Poland.

The phrase “Nazi death camps in Poland” might well be reduced to “Nazi death camps” — which has a completely different meaning than “Polish death camps”, you will admit.

The difference is significant to the Poles, and that is what the President needs to personally address. After all, if he can bow to the Japanese Emperor, and kiss the ring of the ruler of Saudi Arabia, and apologize in Egypt for America’s mistreatment of muslims, certainly eating a little personal crow is not above the station of his office?

(1) he is too much of a narcissistic egomaniac to admit he is dumb as nails and made a mistake

(2) he sees EVERYTHING through a political lens. And, uses some vacuum-sealed political scale to weigh out how it will hurt his re-election chances, campaign funds, and votes.

The irony is, being an honorable and humble leader, who tells the truth, is what get votes and respect. This concept is so foreign to Obama & Co. Unless you are thuggishly harassed and propagandized to death by the far left media outlets, that is…

Obama began his administration not simply insulting Poland, but breaking US Treaty, refusing the missile defense system there. (“Reset” Putin Russia)

Now Obama intentionally insults the historical integrity of Poland, typical revisionism. As if unintentional, the Obama nuance referenced NAZI Poland along with Vichi NAZI France. Why assert Obama’s insult intentional? Because Obama refuses to remove his slur. “Regret” does not RETRACT an insult. If you insult, you apologize. The infamously undiplomatic non-apology as “regret” simply will not suffice.

Obama’s administrative globe trotting perpetual campaign Apology Tour exposed AGAIN for what it is: MARXIST REVISIONISM to remake the world to accommodate the “amateur” who knows better.

I said that I was going to stop commenting because I’m sick of the crap-but I feel the need to write this.
Polish Jew-hatred has very deep roots. Most Poles were NOT Irena Sendlers. They hated the Jews and were glad to see them disappear.. Jedwanbe happend DURING the War. The Polish part of the village joined together to burn their Jewish neighbors to death. Polish communities were EAGER to get rid of their Jew. The Death Camps were put their by Nazis-but Polish ‘volunteerism” helped them last as long as they did. Rather than B*TCHING about how Poland deserves an apology-they most certainly do NOT-the Polish government should be reflecting on their past and the fact that Zero’s statement had some accuracy to it. When the late Yitzak Shamir said(during the Glemp/ Convent in Auschwitz uproar) that Poles drank in antisemitism with their ‘mother’s milk’-he was pretty close to accurate.

BTw: I was named after my Polish-born/London raised great-grandfather. Most likely he came from what is now the LOdz area. My mother guesses that we lost many from his line in the Shoah-very possibly with assistance from our family’s ‘easily insulted’ Christian Polish neighbors. The Poles are protesting more over Zero comment then they EVER did over the murder of their Jews. They can’t help it…

We marshall black preachers and tell them exactly how they can preach from the pulpit and “don’t worry, we wont come after you even if you hold up a pix and tell your congregants they will go to H#%% if they don’t vote for the messiah – obama!

But, but, Obama recently watched both The Sorrow and the Pity and Shoah! He knows more about the holocaust than any previous president!

This probably won’t matter much politically–I’m not sure how many Polish-Americans are Obama voters (although maybe in Chicago there’s a fair number, just on the basis of going for the hometown kid; but of course they all live in a state he’s carrying by 20 points anyhow).

Wow, more insightful political analysis from one of the leftist pundit class’s intellectual heavyweights. Last I looked, there are a few Polish-Americans living outside of Chicago, like in Pennsylvania, a must-have state that is in play this cycle, for example. A lot of them good working and middle class folk, I suspect, who have been reliably voting Democrat for generations. Probably quite a few union folk in there, too. Of course, they are probably all bitter-clingers and reactionary Catholics, and can be safely ignored…

That sounds like what a Jewish man in Berlin told me several years ago — he said that the Germans built death camps in Poland mainly because they knew that the Poles would be happy to keep the Jews imprisoned, and happy to kill them.

The man added that if the Germans had won the war, they would have started imprisoning and killing Poles in general in those camps, because Germans hate Poles.

So the Poles hated the Jews, he said, and the Germans hated the Jews and the Poles.

Carney: Mr. President, Donald Tusk’s latest statement about your “polish death camp” statement is starting to really heat up the controversy. W are going to need to do something.

Obama: I agree. We just can’t let that guy get away with his ridiculous babble. We need to get our super-pacs to denigrate this guy on new TV ads. Then tie Romney to him and complaint the he is not disassociating himself from him and his money. Maybe we can run the ads during his show. When does that air?….

I think that he is really more infuriated that Obama plans to sell out Poland once he is re-elected. Remember that Obama was caught on an open microphone telling a high Russian official that he would have more flexibility on dealing with canceling the missile defense system that is scheduled to be installed in Poland, if he is re-elected. In short the Polish government does not want Obama to have four more years to appease to Russian sensibilities at the expense of Polish defense needs.

The problem is that Odumma simply does not share our American culture and beliefs; he’s not from here. He is a devout muslim, and shares that cultural reality. Remember, in World War II, the arab nations were primarily aligned with the Axis powers, not the Allies. The deal was that the arabs would give Hitler the oil he needed, in exchange for Hitler’s promise to rid the arab lands of Jews. Unfortunately for them, their side lost; they essentially lost their wager. The Jews, meanwhile, also wanted something: a homeland. Long story short, some arab lands were partitioned to create Israel. To Odumba, WW II would have been a loss; and this would be his cultural outlook. He would think of Poles as the enemy.

Poland was ravaged by the Nazis (and then by the Soviets post-WW2), and emotions are still high in Europe over that war. It’s a very very big deal there. Obama probably understands this, but not all, or rather not many Americans at large do.